"The State of Israel ... will ensure complete equality of social and political
rights of all its inhabitants irrespective of religion ... it will guarantee freedom
of religion and conscience." - May 1948)

Thanks to Hiddush - a serious loophole closed

Just this week, on Tuesday, following Hiddush's petition, the Knesset approved regulations that would, for the first time, put a halt to the mass phenomenon of false claims of religiosity aimed at receiving exemptions from military service. Thousands of young women are exempted from IDF service every year on the basis of false affidavits claiming that their religious lifestyles prevent them from serving in the army, even though they lead secular lives.

The Knesset's new regulations that will finally enable the implementation of the law enacted six years ago, which had been nothing more than a dead letter due to the government's failure to approve the regulations.

The next test of the rule of law and the principle of equality of burden will be the implementation of these newly approved regulations, and Hiddush will continue to be vigilant in order to ensure that they will be implemented so as to finally stop the mass disgrace of false religious claims, which harm both state security and Judaism itself.

Almost six years have passed since the Knesset voted to amend the Defense Service Law to allow the IDF to act against women who made false religious claims, by establishing a committee that would be able to revoke such exemptions when proven that the IDF recruits did not meet the criteria set forth in the law. Until this week, such exemptions could only be revoked via prosecution and conviction by in a court of law.

In the amendment to the Law, six years ago, the Knesset determined that within 30 days, regulations to regulate the establishment and operation of that committee would be brought before the Knesset for approval. Despite the passage of time and the ever increasing cases of draft dodging based on false claims, the necessary regulations were not drafted or approved - until Hiddush intervened. We appealed to the High Court of Justice in early 2017 demanding that the Knesset and the Minister of Defense be required to act on this matter, as required by law.

Prior to the December 2017 hearing, the Minister of Defense presented draft regulations; and following the hearing in the High Court of Justice on the matter, a discussion was held by a joint committee of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the Constitution Committee. Finally, on February 13, 2018, the Joint Committee approved the text of the regulations.

In the Joint Committee deliberations, the ultra-Orthodox Knesset members made considerable efforts to create a filibuster to prevent discussion of the regulations on their merits. However, despite their opposition, Members of Knesset from the coalition and the opposition passed the regulations. According to the approved regulations, The Minister of Defense will appoint a committee of five members, headed by a judge, including two IDF representatives, one representative of the Chief Rabbinate and one former military rabbi. Significantly, it was determined that at least three members of the committee would be women.

Hiddush is proud of the role we played in reaching the approval of the necessary regulations for dealing effectively with the masses of false claims of religious lifestyles. We greatly appreciate the determination of the Chairman of the Committee to bring this process to a successful conclusion.

The mass demonstrations and many headlines in the Haredi media these days have made it clear how strong the desire is of ultra-Orthodox politicians to delay and disrupt the approval of the regulations. It is well known that the ultra-Orthodox parties and the Chief Rabbinate maintain that it is forbidden to recruit women into the army. The next test of the rule of law and the principle of equality of burden will be the implementation of the regulations, and Hiddush will continue to be vigilant in order to ensure that they will be implemented in such a way as to finally stop the mass disgrace of false religious claims, which harm both state security and Judaism itself.

BACKGROUND

According to IDF data, thousands of women receive exemptions from conscription every year based on false religious declarations, even though they maintain a secular lifestyle. All that is required of them is to declare that they are religious before a judge at the Rabbinical Court, and the exemption is automatically granted to them. Unlike other exemptions, the IDF can not revoke an exemption granted on the basis of a religious declaration even if there is clear evidence that it was obtained fraudulently. Rather, a criminal conviction is required in Court as a condition for revoking the exemption. The ease with which an exemption can be obtained this way, along with the difficulty faced by the IDF in acting against women who make such false declarations, has resulted in thousands of women (some 10% of the women's recruited annually) dodging their service in such a way every year.

In order to try to resolve this failure, in March 2012 the Knesset approved Amendment 18 to the Defense Service Law. The amendment is supposed to make it easier for the IDF to act against women who falsely declare religious beliefs by establishing an administrative committee that could deny the exemption when it is proven that women do not meet the criteria. The Knesset conditioned the law's implementation upon the enactment of regulations to regulate the activity of that committee. It was determined that these regulations would be drafted by the Minister of Defense, and would be submitted within 30 days to the approval of a joint committee of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. But to this day, close to 6 years and 3 Knessets since the date of the Law's passage, no regulations have been approved. The Knesset committee held only one meeting in 2014, and nothing has progressed since then. Without these regulations - the Defense Minister cannot set up the committee and the women who make false declarations are almost entirely protected from conscription.

Hiddush appealed to the chairpersons of the committees to discuss the regulations of the law, but they claimed that the Ministry of Defense did not send them a draft, while the Ministry of Defense claimed that it had sent on the wording of regulations years ago, and that the delay is the committees'.

Hiddush appealed to the chairpersons of the committees to discuss the regulations of the law, but they claimed that the Ministry of Defense did not send them a draft, while the Ministry of Defense claimed that it had sent on the wording of regulations years ago, and that the delay is the committees'. While each side places responsibility on the other, the law remains unimplemented and mass draft dodging through false affidavits continues. As a result, Hiddush petitioned the High Court of Justice in January 2017, through attorneys Uri Regev and Sagi Agmon, in order to compel the heads of the committees and Ministers to immediately act and approve the regulations in accordance with the requirements of the law.

The Defense Service Law grants an exemption from IDF service on the grounds of religious recognition for a religious woman who declares to a rabbinic court judge her religious way of life (i.e. she keeps kosher and does not travel on Shabbat). By law, the only way to revoke this exemption is to convict such a person in Court. The ease with which the exemption can be obtained for reasons of religious recognition, in addition to the inherent difficulty faced by the IDF in proving that an affidavit submitted was false (which requires a criminal conviction), create a great temptation for women who wish to be exempt from service. The IDF's ability to act against such is very limited.

According to data published by the IDF, of women born in 1998 (whose main recruitment is in 2016) only 58.1% enlisted, and approximately 42% of the women were exempt from military service. The vast majority of those exempted (34.7%) were exempted on the basis of declarations of religious beliefs. For comparison, all the other exemptions - for medical reasons, for marriage, living abroad, etc., constitute 7.2% of the total exemptions. In other words, 83% of the recipients of exemptions from the IDF, receive these on the basis of religious claims.

Although the number of exemption recipients continues to rise from year to year, data received by Hiddush from the IDF indicate that in recent years the number of investigations conducted against such women stands at dozens, and no enforcement measures have been taken against them.

According to the IDF, between 10 and 25 percent of those exempted (about 2,000 to 4,000 women a year) are illegally exempted. In other words, they make false declarations or they cease to be religious after receiving exemptions and do not report this to the IDF (despite the fact that the law requires it), continuing to enjoy the exemption.